


Contour-cut Puzzle Piece

by FujinoLover



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:29:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1779151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujinoLover/pseuds/FujinoLover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the perks of being a clone is... you have a vast selection of perfectly matching donors to choose from.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Contour-cut Puzzle Piece

 

When Scott came back a couple of minutes later, he brought two men with him. The DYAD’s emergency medical team. They lingered on the threshold a second longer, a little baffled that they actually had a _real_ emergency, instead of the usual clumsiness involving deathly chemical which caused unwanted burn. The patient was an unfamiliar female --DYAD held a huge amount of workers-- but they knew the blonde woman on the side of the patient by heart, because she was one of the few workers they had to search if a severe medical situation occurred.

 

“Doctor Cormier!”

 

The loud yell of her name coming from the other side of Cosima had snapped Delphine out of her _I need to see that you’re okay_ panic. When Cosima fell, she had acted on pure instinct and pulled her to her back, disregarding those long hours of trauma rotation that screamed _keep the patients on their side during seizure so they won’t choke!_ She realized her error just a split second too late, because the deep gurgling sound Cosima emitted, followed by her short breathings, were definitely the result of her mistake.

 

“She can’t breathe!”

 

Cosima was alive, unconscious but alive, and she could not cough out the blood that obstructing her respiration pathway. She would die, drowned in her own blood if they did not do anything soon. It took only another millisecond for Delphine to slip back into her physician role. She positioned Cosima’s head in sniffing position with the chin lift maneuver to open her airway and saw no obstruction. She then quickly utilized the stethoscope offered to her. The sickening, bubbling noise from Cosima’s chest confirmed her suspicion.

 

“Hemothorax. We can’t intubate her. Prepare for chest tube insertion,” Delphine ordered before looking over her shoulder to where Ethan and Scott were standing while putting on a pair of gloves, “Scott, I need a clear surface.”

 

Scott nodded, then moved to the other end of the lab where the barest metal table was located. With sheer brute force, he lifted it up on one side, causing everything on top of it to fall onto the floor. He came back to help picking up and putting Cosima on the table. They took off her glasses and DYAD lab coat, positioned her on her left side and put on the oxygen mask while Delphine searched in their emergency cart for scissor.

 

They worked in perfect synch, then. Delphine cut off Cosima’s shirt and bra before pulling her arm up to be held firmly by one of the men above her head. She sterilized the skin on Cosima’s side then probed gently to calculate the correct insertion site. The other man came dragging the cart, a sterile tray holding the instruments they needed was on top and a chest drainage canister already connected its suction outlet. The power would not last for any longer than an hour, but enough to clear Cosima’s lung from the blood that was filling it. The three of them had never felt so grateful for the state of art, compact emergency cart DYAD provided.

 

“1% Lidocaine,” the man informed from behind his mask, passing a 10 mL syringe with 25-gauge needle to Delphine.

 

The blonde doctor used it to anesthetize the surface of the rib and then the tissue superior to it with the 22-gauge needle before covering the area around the insertion site with a blue sterile drape.

 

“11 blade.”

 

The man repeated Delphine’s instruction as he handed her the correct scalpel. The doctor took a deep breath and steadied her hand before she made the horizontal incision through the skin along the inferior aspect of the rib. This was, beyond doubt, not a way she would like to be intimate with Cosima. Never once Delphine thought she would be required to cut or treat her lover as a patient, but here she was, using controlled pressure to push the closed Mayo clamp through parietal pleura then perforated the pleura space. Blood flowed out of Cosima’s mouth on her next expiration and her previous shallow, quick pant was replaced with deeper ones when the oxygen mask got reattached to her face. However, the work was nowhere near done for Delphine.

 

With a flinch that went unnoticed due to her mask, Delphine spread the Mayo clamp then poked her finger through the hole to ensure that entry had been made into the pleural space. Her assistant exchanged the Mayo clamp and scalpel for a curved, 28 Fr soft silicone chest tube, which Delphine guided and directed inferiorly with her index finger so that it lay along the base of the pleural space. Once it fit into place, she connected its free end to the awaiting suction apparatus, waiting with bated breath as blood drained through the tube and relieved Cosima’s lung from its pressure.

 

Delphine then sew the tube to the chest wall with surgical silk suture and large curved cutting needle. She partially closed the incision with a mattress stitch, winding both ends of the suture around the tube as if she was lacing up a shoe. After tying the ends of the suture snugly around the top of the tube, she stepped over to let the men finished for her. They wrapped petrolatum-impregnated gauze around the tube to seal it to the skin, covered it with sterile gauze sponges, and then taped them together in place. They also taped the connections to ensure nothing would come off.

 

Delphine hands were shaking so badly the moment they lost connection to Cosima’s skin. The surrounding that faded away the moment her brunette lover fell was slowly coming back to her. She noticed her bloody gloves after she pulled down her mask, instantly discarding both of them to the nearest trashcan. She saw Scott standing alert by the far side, pale and eyes wide with fear. Ethan had almost the same reaction; his creation withering right in front of him must have instilled how grave the situation really was. Thompson, the one holding Cosima’s arm, and Richet, who was acting as Delphine’s assistant, were slowly turning Cosima to her back then began assessing her current condition. The blonde had seriously forgotten about their names, her attention being poured entirely to her lover had left everything else blurry.

 

“She is stable, doctor Cormier.”

 

“Thank you, Thompson.” Delphine nervously a hand over her hair; some of her golden locks were sticking to her sweaty forehead. “I-I’m sorry, I...”

 

“It’s okay,” Richet assured this time.

 

Truth to be told, they never saw the French doctor being so distraught before. It was obvious that the patient was close to her, they understood the agony she must have gone through to do the procedure herself. Although it was also unlikely she would let them do it either. What had been done was done and they had to move forward from now.

 

“We-we are going to need the portable chest X-ray... No, make it a full CT scan. She fell and had tonic-clonic seizure for two minutes. There must be bruise and she might have broken bones. Run her through EEG test as well, I need to check if her brain--“

 

“Delphine.”

 

The blonde jerked to a stop almost violently when her first name was called and by Scott nonetheless. He never did it before and she had been clear about their positions as superior and subordinate. Her brows furrowed further when the younger man stepped closer.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Delphine,” Scott repeated, one hand reaching over to touch the blonde’s arm. Wary at first, but when no resistant was met, he squeezed slightly. An offer of comfort from a friend. “Cosima is going to be okay, she’s going to be okay... You saved her.” The words struck home and seemed to knock the air out of Delphine’s own lungs.

 

_Cosima is going to be okay._

 

Relief washed over the French woman as she turned and really _looked_ at Cosima, who was alive and breathing. Even with the help from the oxygen mask. Even with the chest tube sticking out of her ribs. Even with the newly administered IV line connected to her vein. She was alive.

 

_You saved her._

 

Delphine broke down into tears.

 

* * *

 

 

Rachel Duncan was many things. Cunning, manipulative, and ambitious were to name a few of her superior qualities. Sympathetic, she was not. Thus when faced with the problem of doctor Cormier’s involvement with her genius counterpart, she preferred to stay and survey from the background while Leekie dealt with them. But Leekie was dead now and she had to handle business with the odd couple herself and DYAD was in a dire need of a new director.

 

Rachel could have picked someone else, someone easier to control, someone they had dirt on, but there were not many people in the institution who were well-aware of the clones’ existences and involved directly in the project to begin with. It was a double-blind thing. She could fill the seat herself, but her unfamiliarity with the science part within DYAD hindered her to do so. For an institute which main works related to health improvement, someone with an amazing background like Delphine’s --Aldous Leekie’s most trusted student, showing up in many of his previous journals, a doctor with doctorate in immunology, young, and with charm that easily grabbed both sexes-- was the perfect candidate.

 

Delphine would be the fresh face of DYAD, easing and fitting in to directorship without much hardship from her fellow scientists, and also to serve being the bridge between the institution and Sarah’s clone club. She was a pawn Rachel would rather not lose so soon. However, said pawn’s connection was practically hanging on a thin thread named Cosima, who Rachel was sure would not stay alive long enough for Ethan to start producing the cure. If Cosima was gone, Delphine would surely be gone as well and with such knowledge the blonde had, DYAD would be forced to eliminate her. It was not something Rachel wanted. Therefore, she dared to take an extreme countermeasure to keep the blonde scientist tied with DYAD. A small sacrifice was always required for a greater cause, after all.

 

“Sit, doctor Cormier.”

 

Delphine nodded then did as Rachel had told her. It had only been this morning when she performed the emergency tube thoracostomy on Cosima. She had changed her clothes then, the black shirt hid the blood but the smell stuck and she really did not need the reminder of how close her girlfriend was to death to follow her all day long. Plus, it was unsanitary. She was just coming out from the locker room when Martin came to pick her. It appeared that the news about Cosima had reached Rachel and now the proclone wanted to talk to Delphine.

 

Whether she realized it or not, Delphine shifted to sit on the farthest end of the couch. Rachel, undeniably, scared her. Even more now that she actually had to _look up_ at her. It sometimes intrigued Delphine, how someone who shared practically everything with her Cosima --warm, toothy grins, and charming Cosima-- could be so different. Rachel made Delphine’s skin crawl, just like Sarah did in her own way. Apparently, the English counterparts of her beloved were the ones she would rather avoid. She too could not help but hope this meeting to end quickly so she could get back to her girlfriend, who was sleeping on the hospital bed Thompson and Richet had brought into their lab after the incident this morning.

 

“I’d like you to take over as interim director.”

 

That, was definitely not something Delphine had anticipated. “I don’t think this is the right time for promotion.” She did not mention how shady the heart attack story about Leekie was, or about how the smile Rachel was sporting at the moment looked so unnatural on her.

 

“Delphine,” Rachel must have noticed how said woman flinched every time she used her first name and kept doing it just to ruffle her feather, “I’m here with a proposition... to save Cosima.”

 

“We have Professor Duncan,” Delphine pointed out.

 

All of a sudden, Rachel took a seat on the same couch. “Yes, but he wouldn’t be able to produce the cure so soon.”

 

Delphine stayed silent, shying her eyes away from the ones that were identical yet not similar to her lover’s. “We have time.” Even her voice sounded so meek for her own ears.

 

Rachel did not bother correcting her. “You are familiar of organ transplant, yes?” The proclone did not make any effort to hide her sinister smile when realization downed upon Delphine’s eyes as they were now staring incredulously straight at her. It was easy to see how shock flicked into horrified before hope shone all over them. She pushed the neat stack of folders in front of Delphine. “Pick one and she will be here. I have everything prepared downstairs.” Rachel then stood up, a silent action to dismiss the other blonde.

 

The doctor caught on quickly, taking the folders without checking what was inside. She _knew_ what was inside. Her hands burned just from holding them. She wanted nothing but to drop them back to the coffee table and ran the old building, to their lab, to hold Cosima tightly in her arms. Hold her and never let her go and forgot about the death and director position and especially the folders that contained information of clones Rachel offered to be Cosima’s lung donor.

 

She was by the door when Rachel called again. “You can buy more time for Cosima, Delphine.”

 

Delphine acknowledged it with a stiff nod, then resumed her walk out of the room.

 

* * *

 

 

Delphine spent the rest of her day locked up in her office in DYAD’s new building, mulling over the proposal Rachel offered. She asked Scott to keep an eye on Cosima and inform her if something happened. They had the dreadlocked girl sedated in order to let her body rest and gain back its strength. As much as Delphine wanted to be by her lover’s side herself, she could not face her with those folders spread over her desk and what they implied weighting her shoulders.

 

324S59.

 

324M71.

 

324H06.

 

324C28.

 

324Z43.

 

_ It’s _ _all of us. You have to love all of us._

 

_Then I love all of you._

 

Delphine was not lying when she said that, even in their post-high condition when it was easy to just lie again to Cosima. She could not possibly lie because she had loved them since they were only tag numbers, scrawled on the side of vacutainer tubes that filled with blood samples. She was worried when she found cancer cells on 324O82’s sample and relieved when by the next sample, there were traces of chemotherapy. She wondered whether 324E35 had not gotten on any OB/GYN examination because there were high level of estrogen and progesterone from birth control pills consumption when it was not even necessary. She drank when 324S64’s sample no longer showed up, assuming its demise as the reason. Delphine loved all of them; they had been her precious specimens.

 

However, being assigned as 324B21’s monitor had changed her whole view. It was not just tag numbers anymore. It belonged to a human being; a person made of flesh and bones with her own unique characteristics, even when all of them shared uncanny physical resemblance. Each of them was a person of their own and Delphine could not see those numbers as mere tag numbers anymore.

 

324S59 was Lucy Hanamura, a Shinto priestess from Kyoto, Japan.

 

324M71 was Valeria Moretti, a chef from Milan, Italy, who owned a small vegetarian bistro in New York.

 

324H06 was Isabelle Davis, a pediatric surgeon from Miami who was currently working for Doctors without Border’s project in Botswana.

 

324C28 was Sister Mary Cecelia Clair from Vatican City.

 

324Z43 was Jessica MiYeon Kim, WWF representative in Seoul, South Korea.

 

None of them had showed any symptoms of their degenerative respiratory disease. In fact, this group was probably the healthiest of them all and yet, there was no way Delphine would be able to pick one of them to be Cosima’s donor. It would be too cruel to rip an innocent life for a selfish reason, but Delphine wanted to be selfish for once. She wanted to ignore Cosima’s hardheadedness and foolish idealist wish to put the clone club above her own life. She wanted Cosima to survive and live. But by the end, she couldn’t go against her.

 

With shoulders slumped in defeat, Delphine made her way back to their lab and relieved Scott from his watching duty. They exchanged a small shushed chat, mostly information coming from the man and words of gratitude from Delphine, before he left them alone. Cosima was still lying on her side, her back facing Delphine when the latter came to sit on the vacant side of the bed. For once, the blonde was not eager to see her lover’s face. She had seen variations of them all day long, there was no guarantee she would not break down into a mess if she were to see Cosima.

 

Cosima shifted on the bed, slowly rising into a sitting position when she heard Delphine’s failed attempt to hide a sob. “What have you done?” Her voice came out rougher than she wanted, partially due to the nasal cannula in her nose.

 

“Nothing.” Delphine cried harder when she saw Cosima staring at her suspiciously, the distrust doubled her pain. “There is nothing I can do, Cosima...”

 

That was the problem. She _could_ do something, they had options available. Sarah might have refused to give Kira’s bone marrow, but DYAD’s manpower could easily abolish Siobhan Sadler’s little group of protection. They could take Kira by force. Delphine could choose one of the clones to be Cosima’s donor and buy more time for her until Ethan finished unlocking the synthetic sequence. Delphine could do something, but she wouldn’t, because Cosima would reject it. The blonde had never felt so helpless in her life. She effortlessly slid into her lover’s arms when the latter opened them for her and stayed there for the rest of the night, crying herself into a fitful sleep.

 

The next day was a whirlwind of troubles. Latest CT scan revealed a new accumulation of fluid in Cosima’s left lung. Delphine had to do another tube thoracostomy, this time with Cosima wide awake during the painful procedure. The color drained from Delphine’s face when thick pus mixed with blood travelled down the tube. It only meant one thing, _infection_. She had just administered high-dose of broad spectrum antibiotic in Cosima’s IV when Martin came to informed her about Ethan Duncan’s death. Rachel had killed him and he brought the way to unlock the synthetic sequence with him. Now they were really running out of time.

 

_I’m trying to help. Tell me what you want._

 

But Cosima was not even there to tell her what to do. The brunette had been tethering between consciousness and unconsciousness whilst suffering from fever, a clear sign that her body was fighting the infection. Delphine knew the prognosis was bad. It was only a matter of time before her left lung failed and they had to remove it before the infection spread. Delphine was practically shoved into a corner with her hands tied together and with it, her resolve renewed. She could live with Cosima hating her, but she couldn’t live knowing she had let Cosima die without doing anything.

 

“I will take the position,” Delphine announced without preamble when she got inside Rachel’s office, ignoring the clone’s distraught look. “Cosima needs new lungs, _now_.”

 

Rachel did not acknowledge the demand, but she made the phone call for the surgery team to take Cosima in. They had been prepared since the day before, anyway. She then took the new contract out for Delphine, on which the blonde doctor signed after reading the clauses carefully to make sure there was no foul play taking place within.

 

“Good decision, doctor Cormier.”

 

“I...” Delphine bit her lip, casting her puppy-dog eyes at Rachel, who was taken aback by the sudden change. If the action worked on Cosima, there was a big chance it might work on the other clones as well and Delphine was not stupid, she had noticed how Rachel looked at her the first time they met. “Can I... hug you?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

Delphine wrapped her arms around herself whilst giving the most vulnerable expression she could muster. “I... It’s... Cosima might,” she swallowed thickly, tears came with no trouble when she imagined her lover being dead, “die... and I-I don’t know what I should do if she does.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Rachel did not make any move from her seat, so Delphine took the initiative to get out of hers then rounded the table to stand right in front of her. The smaller blonde was staring at Delphine cautiously, as if she would jump and stab her with a hidden knife, even when the latter slowly opened her arms to show that she was harmless. After long seconds that felt like hours, Rachel eventually submitted to defeat. With a sigh, she got onto her feet and Delphine instantly enveloped her in a hug.

 

“Thank you, Rachel.”

 

“Hmm...” If the contact felt nice, Rachel did not comment on it and kept her arms hanging awkwardly on her sides. “Which one did you choose?”

 

“ _Non_.”

 

The shorter blonde cocked a brow at that and tried to pull back, but Delphine was stronger. She was used to holding Cosima, she was well acquainted with her body, and Rachel was obviously not one of the strongest clones. The doctor simply moved her arms lower then squeezed tighter. With Rachel’s arms trapped under hers, she took out the small syringe she had hidden on the sleeve of her blouse and uncapped it leisurely.

 

“I can’t choose, but you know who else has not shown any symptoms?”

 

Rachel was struggling to get free, but to no avail.

 

“324A13.”

 

The needle ripped through the side of Rachel’s neck, pouring sedative into her system. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as Delphine let her slid back onto her chair.

 

“You.”

 

* * *

 

 

Cosima woke up groggily. She felt like she had fallen over from a building, run over by trucks several times, and had her insides ripped out then put back in together. Everything hurt like hell. It was the presence of her girlfriend by her bedside that kept her eyes open. Delphine smiled and even under the remainder influence of anesthesia, Cosima could see the tiredness in her eyes.

 

“Hey...”

 

“ _Chérie_.” Delphine brought their intertwined hands closer to land small kisses on the knuckles after she helped putting the glasses back on and gave Cosima an ice chip. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Like shit,” the brunette groaned but soon smiled when she heard her lover giggle at her. “What happened?”

 

“A lot. Are you sure you want to hear everything? You need to rest after--“

 

“Don’t be a bitch...”

 

“Professor Duncan is dead, Rachel killed him.”

 

Cosima’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh shit.” Apparently, she had no recollection since the infection hit her.

 

“I took over Leekie’s position.”

 

“Uugh...” Cosima scrunched her nose in distaste, but gladly took another ice chip from Delphine. “I’m banging the enemy’s boss now.”

 

The blonde let the remark slip. “Rachel is dead.”

 

“What?!”

 

“She lost her mind, we had to subdue her.” It was the same excuse Delphine had told Marian Bowles and just like the older woman, Cosima nodded mutely. “I seized the opportunity to take her lungs... for you. It will give us enough time to unlock the synthetic sequence professor Duncan left.”

 

“I have her body parts in me now?”

 

“Yes. It fits perfectly; you don’t need to take immunosuppressant for the rest of your life.”

 

“Can’t say I like it.” Cosima eventually shrugged and Delphine finally let go of the breath she was holding, “Kinda feel bad for her.”

 

“Me too, _chérie_... Me too...”

 

No, she did not. Delphine did not feel even an ounce of guilt for sending Rachel to her death. She would do it all over again if she had to. Cosima might hate her if she found out the truth, even though Rachel was a threat for them, because she was that kind and Delphine was not. But what was another lie, if Delphine could keep Cosima alive for another day?

 


End file.
